In many wireless communication systems, a node within the system will need to determine, and broadcast location information. Because of this, there exists many prior-art schemes to determine locations for nodes within communication systems, and then broadcast the locations to other nodes within the system. For example, in U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 10/040,610 location calculations are done at a central location or at the nodes in the network in a distributed manner. As the location algorithm is distributed throughout the network it is necessary for the individual nodes to know the location of neighbors within communication range. In general this requires added communication between nodes in the network to exchange calculated position estimates.
As is known, excessive transmission by nodes within a communication system not only contributes to overall system interference, but also reduces battery life for the transmitting nodes. Thus, the constant transmission of location estimates by nodes within a communication system increases system interference and decreases the battery life for the nodes transmitting such information. Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for transmitting location data within a communication system that reduces the amount of system interference, while minimizing the amount of battery drain on the node.